In recent chats with director Ridley Scott, he spoke a bit about the state of his Alien franchise and how his 2012 sci-fi prequel Prometheus – and its upcoming sequels – fit into it. Scott, who confirmed that the unofficially titled Prometheus 2 would be his next film, had previously said that:

“Prometheus has its own story to tell before it eventually ties into the movie that started it all…it won’t be in the next one. It will be in the one after this one or maybe even a fourth film before we get back into the ‘Alien’ franchise.”

All well and good, except that in a recent interview with HeyUGuys, Scott revealed the sequel’s title to be Alien: Paradise Lost. No mention of Prometheus (and any negative connotations that audiences may bring along with them) and an obvious tie to the hit Alien franchise. Maybe we’ll be getting closer to the Xenomorphs sooner than we thought?

Slightly less obvious, except to the learned among you, is the nod to John Milton’sepic poem, “Paradise Lost,” which tells of the Biblical Fall of Man. The tale of Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve, and God’s resulting expulsion of the duo from the Garden of Eden is certainly rich territory for Scott to mine when it comes to very mortal humans seeking to learn the secrets of the Engineers. Scott himself confirmed that the sequel will indeed explore the reasoning behind the alien creatures’ “evil biology” and what caused them to create such monsters. Another question that begs to be asked in light of the new title is … what did humanity do to deserve such cruelty?

Here’s the relevant part of the interview with HeyUGuys where Scott reveals the new title for Prometheus 2:

Scott also talked briefly about the new Blade Runner project. No, he didn’t reveal any title for that film except to say that it will be “Blade Runner plus something.” Make sure to head on over to HeyUGuys for the whole video interview.